


Not All Channels Available in Atlantis

by TwinEnigma



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-10
Updated: 2011-08-10
Packaged: 2018-05-26 21:00:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6255598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwinEnigma/pseuds/TwinEnigma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's something in the room.</p><p>How do you fight an enemy when you can't remember they exist if you look away?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not All Channels Available in Atlantis

 

                Kaldur doesn’t quite understand what he is seeing, but he stands in the shadows of the doorway, frozen in his surprise and horror.

                There is a man, a thing, _alien and white and terrible,_ standing behind the couch where Robin is sitting and playing video games with Kid Flash. The thing has a pinched, drawn-out face, deep-set black eyes, and he’d almost swear it was wearing a suit, if he hadn’t noticed the strange leathery quality and the way it folded strangely, like flesh.   It is too close, entirely too close, to his teammates for comfort and if he shouts, it may attack them before they can defend themselves.

                Kaldur tries to shift deeper into the shadows for a better vantage point and sees more of them. They are everywhere, covering the ceiling like a vicious alien parody of bats. And yet, oddly, neither Kid Flash or Robin seemed aware of their presence.

                A sudden noise from behind him had Kaldur nearly leaping out of his skin as he whips his head around to see Superboy and M’gann.

                “Are you okay, Kaldur? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” M’gann says. She looks deeply concerned.

                Kaldur blinks, momentarily taken aback from the almost instinctive reaction to say he’d seen something, and then shakes his head to clear the impulse. There hadn’t been anything out of the ordinary. “It’s nothing. Just didn’t want to get dragged into another round of _Halo.”_

                Superboy nods, smiling a little, and looks over his shoulder. Suddenly, Superboy stiffens, his eyes widening and nostrils flaring in obvious rage mere seconds before he lets out a fierce cry and charges into the next room.

                Kaldur turns and sees the monster (how could he forget that thing) behind Kid Flash and Robin, just as Superboy’s fist impacts its face and caves in the thick skull like a ripe melon. Piercing shrieks and screams of rage come from the ceiling and he can see that whatever it was had friends, lots of them. Lightning crackles in the air, sparks arcing off of anything metal, twisting towards the monsters on the ceiling. This is going to get ugly fast and something is wrong, because Superboy is already moving again and he’s already killed one of these things.

                M’gann comes out of his blind spot and he can feel his skin prickle with the force of her psychic powers, focused with precision lethality towards these strange horrible aliens. She claps her hands together and one of the creatures is torn into pieces.

                They don’t kill.

                Kid Flash is moving, a blur that is too fast even for lightning, and where he passes, dark blood like motor oil explodes into being.

                They aren’t supposed to kill.

                Robin’s laughing, that too high and chill manic giggle, as he dances through the fray and flings his shuriken and bombs into the tide of monsters. He is precise, going for eyes and throats and aortas, all with the same childish glee he would take with his normal disabling strikes. He makes the others look like amateurs in the art of murder.

                Kaldur is frozen, unable to look away but unwilling to participate.

                Black blood and bone and leathery flesh rain down, staining everything with ichor. Some of the bodies are already starting to disintegrate.

                Heroes don’t kill.

                Heroes don’t do _this._

                There has to be something wrong with them. Maybe mind control? Drugs pumped in through the ventilation shafts? Perhaps a spell – a spell could do this.

                The last one bellows in pain as Kid Flash sends it careening to the ground and Robin is suddenly there, a blade in hand. He saws through the creature’s leathery throat with only a little difficulty and then steps back, satisfied.

                “Hey guys!” Artemis shouts from the other room.

                Everyone turns towards the sound, Kaldur last of all. He wonders how he’s going to explain this mess to her, what the team has done, and then thinks that maybe he should contact the League.

                Kaldur blinks, frowning. Wait. Why was he going to contact the League? How odd, he thinks as he follows the others into the other room.

                “I’m sorry I’m late,” Artemis says. She is smiling, bright and wide, and impossibly giddy. “You would _not_ believe the day I just had.”

                Kaldur smiles as she starts telling them about a madman in a blue box and decides that whatever it was surely wasn’t important.


End file.
